The Hastings & District Table Tennis Association held their annual Closed Championships on Sunday at Hastings Academy in a return to the traditional weekend format.
The tournament saw excellent performances from Lewis Mayhew (Bexhill) and Rose Rainton (Hollington Academy), nationally ranked No. 2 Veteran Woman, who repeated last year’s achievement of the ‘grand slam’ of women’s events.
Eighth seed Mayhew took his first Hastings Men’s Singles title with a fine win over top seed Paul Barry (Hollington Academy) in a tense five-game final.
Barry beat title-holder Dave Butler (Saints) in the semi-final while Mayhew had a tough route, beating second seed Nathan Darby (Academy) and fourth seed Basher Obeyed (Academy) to reach the final.
The Women’s Singles was played as a group of five in which Rainton was unbeaten, despite dropping a game on three occasions. Tina Beaney (Bexhill) repeated last year’s runner up performance after losing her first two games, then coming from 0-2 down to beat Alison Jordan (Monarchs) – a result which pushed Jordan down to third place.
Butler and Barry retained the Men’s Doubles title, but had to come from two games down to beat Darby and Mayhew after a semi-final defeat of Jamie Martin and Fraser Kent (both Academy). At the same stage Darby and Mayhew accounted for Obeyed and Andy Syrett (Saints)
In another five-game final, Rainton and Beaney took the Women’s Doubles, beating Sheila King (Tigers) and Pam Winter (Bexhill) 11-8 in the decider.
Rainton’s serene progress to her third treble hit a snag when regular Mixed Doubles partner Robin Gibbs had to scratch with a knee injury. Another team-mate, Jamie Martin proved a more than capable deputy as the Academy duo won a four-game final against Barry and Gina Rogers (Tackleway).
Paul Hyland (NALGO) retained the Division 2 Singles title, beating Kevin McEwan (Bexhill) in the final.
The Division 3 Singles was played as a group, which was won by Dave Watters (Academy) with Peter Harding (Monarchs) second.
The Men’s Consolation Singles was won by Ryan Heselden (Bexhill) with James Gorridge (Tackleway) runner-up.
The tournament was refereed by Diane Webb who was assisted by Peter Harding (Organiser) and Mick Lane. Trophies were presented by Association President Robin Gibbs.
